Group to Launch Digital Video Ad Campaign to Pass NJ Aid-in-Dying Bill By Year’s End

Ads Link to Videos of Terminally Ill Residents and Their Loved Ones Urging Lawmakers to Act

Compassion & Choices today announced the launch of a sustained digital video ad campaign featuring terminally ill advocates and their loved ones urging New Jersey lawmakers to pass the Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Act (A1504/S1072) without delay after six years of debate on the issue.

Herb and Debra Dunn as newlyweds

The end-of-life care advocacy group made the announcement after a rally and lobbying day last Thursday by its local supporters at the state capitol in Trenton to demand lawmakers bring the popular legislation to the floor for a vote before the end of the year.

“We have patiently waited for the legislature to pass this compassionate bill for six years, despite the fact that polling consistently has shown the vast majority of New Jerseyans want this end-of-life care option to peacefully end unbearable suffering,” said Corinne Carey, New Jersey campaign director for Compassion & Choices. “We cannot watch any more terminally ill advocates for this legislation die in needless agony waiting for legislative leaders to bring the bill to the floor when we know there are enough votes to pass it now.”

The ad campaign will launch on Monday, Oct. 1, with a riveting 2-minute video of Debra Dunn, an operating room nurse in Paramus, vividly describing how her husband, Herb, died in agony from pancreatic cancer in five years ago in 2013 because he did not have access to medical aid in dying. Ever since then, she has been advocating for lawmakers to pass the Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Act. Her video urges her fellow New Jerseyans to write their lawmakers in support of the legislation at: CompassionAndChoices.org/New-Jersey. The video is posted at: bit.ly/DebraDunnVideo

“My husband was constantly in pain,” says Dunn in the video. “The morphine took the edge off. It never took him out of pain, never … He went onto hospice, he wasn’t eating or drinking anymore. He lasted two weeks, unfortunately, because it was a horrible two weeks. Please ask our legislative leaders to bring the medical aid in dying bill to the floor for a vote.”

The video ads will run on multiple digital platforms until lawmakers enact the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act.

Medical aid in dying has been authorized in Washington, D.C. and 7 states: California, Colorado, Hawai’i, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Collectively, these jurisdictions represent nearly 1 out of 5 Americans (19%) and have 40 years of combined experience safely using this end-of-life care option.